


everybody is on the run

by karistiel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, F/F, F/M, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Torture, Minor Character Death, Panic Attacks, Slow Burn, Touch-Starved, Trauma, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2019-09-29 02:48:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17195069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karistiel/pseuds/karistiel
Summary: Harry Potter is pronounced dead. Voldemort is on the rising. Those who have managed to escape are running, those who were left behind are dead. Hermione leads a refugee camp and helps them escape the clutches of darkness, that seem closer and closer. Draco Malfoy is alone, running from the same evil he once was a part of. He has a valuable secret that can change the course of this war and knows only one person who can help him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Well, hello! I'm Karina and this is my first fic in this site and in english (who is not my first language). It's a WIP but I felt like posting it anyway. I love Dramione with all my heart even after so many years since I discovered them and I really love to write about them in many different ways. 
> 
> I don't know if there is a story out there with a plot like this, but I never found one. I like to explore alternative universes and this one has been in my mind for some time. This is gonna be a rollercoaster of emotions, so, if you'll take your time to read this, be prepared! I really hope you enjoy this, becase I really like writing this story.
> 
> I'll be adding tags as I go, otherwise I'm gonna be lost in those already (there's so many). I'll also put trigger warnings in every chapter, just so you know when things are coming. 
> 
> I don't have a beta, so I'm very sorry for any mistakes I make on the run.
> 
> Without further ado, let's get to the first chapter :]
> 
> *Title of the story based on the song Everybody Is On The Run by Noel Gallagher*

_you can't fight the feeling and all is the same in the pouring rain (...)_

_a broken heart is still beating in and out of time, hold your body next to mine (...)_  
  
_you can't stop the bleeding so sing to yourself and hold on_

-[Noel Gallagher](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDVKurl_d4g).

 

They had just buried another one of them, the second one just that month and it was becoming even more frequent. That one in special was one of the strongest and that was reason enough to worry. Hermione shaked her wand pointing at the makeshift tombstone and, in seconds, words started to appear: “ _Great friend, partner and son. We’ll miss you. Dean Thomas, 1980 – 2000.”_

The tombstone was at the feet of a big apple tree with yellow leaves who fell delicatedly on the ground from time to time. A strong and cold wind shook the tree, dissipating the rest of the leaves who was at the top of the tomb. It was like the tree was receiving Dean’s body and protecting him.

Hermione shrunk on herself when the same wind reached her. It was autumn and the trees around her was dry and the twigs looked like claws; it was terrifying.

Behind her was possible to hear the soft cries of some people, but she was also capable to hear the worried whispers. She knew what she had to do now; they need to get out of there, fast as possible or they would get caught and only God knows how they were going to survive. They had diminished in number in a scary way on the last months but she didn’t wanna show fear. She _couldn’t_ show fear. She had people to take care of and she had people to help. She couldn’t dare to feel fear.

Hermione took her eyes from the tombstone and turned to her friends. They looked exhausted and defeated. There was no more of the typical griffyndor glow in their eyes, there was no smiles; for more than two years. Two fucking years of chaos; two years of the death of Harry Potter and the rising of the Dark Lord; two years running away and hiding. They all looked at her with expectancy, waiting for some command, something to do. She sighed and cleared her throat.

“Alright. We leave at nightfall. Neville and Seamus come with me, we’re gonna prepare the portal keys, the rest of you, get up camp.”

Neville and Seamus followed her while the others got to work, clearly happy to have something to do and take their minds off Dean’s tomb a few meters away. The three of them entered the bigger tent, where was the improvised kitchen and sometimes the reunion room. They sat at the table and looked at each other.

“Where do we go now?” Seamus asked. He looked even more tired than the others and Hermione suddendly remembered that Dean was his best friend. She sighed and ran her hand through her hair.

She took out a shabby map with several points marked in the paper. The red dots marked the places where they were already have been, while the black dots marked the places where they have encountered Death Eaters; there was too many black dots to not be worried.

Hermione pointed at a distant place on the map, away from all the other marks. Indonesia, said the name. An island. Close to Australia but still far away. She had spent the last days thinking about this. Australia was the place where she had sent her parents away, almost three years ago, and hadn’t heard a word about them since. If she was lucky enough, Australia was still a safe place and she could finally breathe in relief and get them somewhere, anywhere.

“It’s an island. This type of place is hard for them to take and mostly they have sticked to big countrys where there was more people to subjugate.” she explained.

“I can see that. There is a good chance that they were never even there.” Neville chimed in.

“I’ll go check.” Seamus announced. Hermione immediately shaked her head. She didn’t wanna lose another one of her friends and she was absolutely sure that Seamus would want revenge if he finds any Death Eaters on the way.

“I’ll go and if I don’t get back before nightfall you already know what to do.” she cut off the beginning of Seamus protest and he sighed in defeat.

“We’re not going without you, Hermione.” said Neville and she shaked her head again.

“Yes, you will, if that’s necessary. We are dealing with hundreds of lifes for the price of one, Neville.”

Without giving time for them to protest, she left the tent and walked in the direction of the forest. On the way, she saw the people, whom she got to know better on the last years, taking down the camp. At this point, the tasks were done with such easy that it took very little time to finish. Some were shaking their wands at the tents, some were weaving their wands to make objects shrink and put them in their bags; many of the things they had today were collected on the run. There wasn’t many things. 

She kept going until the protection spells were left behind and she was standing in the open cold forest. The plan was to apparate directly in Australia, the closer place form Indonesia she had visited and could remember. She took her wand in a firm hold and closed her eyes, concentrating. She thought of the last place she visited in Australia and apparated. Seconds later, she stepped in firm ground and stumbled. She always got dizzy after long distance apparatation. She closed her eyes again to avoid the world spinning around her and realised how tired she actually was. She opened her eyes again, startled, when someone aproached her.

“Are you okay miss?” the woman asked. Hermione blinked and quickly became alert. She cleared her throat.

“I am fine, thank you.” she managed, trying to force a smile. The woman only offered a doubtful look to her clothes. Hermione looked down and almost cursed when she saw the blood on her shirt, visible even under the coat she was wearing. She mentally cursed herself for this absurd mistake and negligency.

“Are you sure?” insisted the woman.

“Oh, yes, this was only a nasal bleeding.” Hermione made a face, trying to be convincent. Unfortunaly, the woman didn’t seemed to buy any of that.

Hermione sighed, already hating what she had to do. With a deep displeasure, she raised her wand and pointed to the woman’s temple, who looked at her in confusion.

“ _Obliviate_ ” she whispered.

The woman’s eye unfocused and Hermione swallowed the knot that formed in her throat. She hated with all her being when she had to do something like that. Before the woman could get back to conscience, she fleed the scene.

At last, Hermione turned back to the task at hand. Closing the buttons of her coat to hide the blood, she looked around and tried to blend with the shadows of the houses.

She was in Darwin, of that she was sure. Right ahead she could see the park that her and her parentes had visited so many years ago. Darwin was a tourist town and was always full of people. That’s why she knew something was very wrong. Unlike the last time she was here, the streets were empty. She couldn’t avoid the tears that fell to the concret floor together with her last thread of hope. The country had been attacked and the chance that her parents could be alive were slim. She allowed herself a minute of grief and them she wiped her face and dismissed those thoughts. She needed to think what she was going to do next; she had already lost almost twenty minutes without reason.

At first, she looked around the small street with clinical eyes and when she didn’t see anything, made the decision to leave the safety of the hiding. She started walking, still scanning her surroudings. On the way to the next street she found some people walking by. Black coat, head down and in a hurry. She noticed that the houses around her were mostly empty. Some seemed directly out of some horror movies, the fence knocked down and windows closed with pieces of wood. Other ones seemed immaculated. Two houses ahead of where she was, one house stood out because of it's beauty and the sounds coming from there. Having another look around, Hermione noticed that at least two more houses seemed lived in, while the others were abandoned.

Pushing the hood of her coat over her head, Hermione tried to mingle with the shadows on the streets again. She had to get away from there as fast as she could. She took her wand in her hand, ready to disapparate when she heard voices coming her way. She holded her breath and closed her hand tight around her wand inside the pocket of her coat. Instantly she recognized one of the man, if he could be called that. Fenrir Greyback passed her, talking with another Death Eater that she didn’t know the name. She almost breathed in relief when they got at the end of the street and made the move to turn the corner. But then, Greyback stopped abruptly and looked back, looking right at her, still hiding in the shadows.

“I know that smell.” she heard him say to the other man, who scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“Of course you do, every muggle smells the same.” he answered, revealing to Hermione that he was another werewolf.

“I meant that I smelled it before.” Greyback retorted, closing his eyes and smelling the air obscenely. “It’s a scent really hard to forget.”

Hermione, who was frozen in fear, was shaken out of it when he made a move in her direction. She breathed deeply and made her legs move faster and as quietly as she could, in the opposite way. The shadows helped keep her away from the eyes, but that advantage started disappearing at every step that Greyback took in her direction. She couldn’t risk apparate and have him follow her to the camp, she needed a safe place first, where she could concentrate on where she was going. Maybe she could get in one of the houses without being seen and apparate... Before she could finish the thought, she realised the shadows had disappeared with the lights of the houses illuminating her path. She turned around with wand in hand to face her enemy but was too slow. In a minute she was down, stupefied. Fortunately, the spell was weak, and she didn’t blackout, but was thrown at the wall behind her with enough force to make her dizzy. She blinked a few times, trying to get her wits back and got up, launching a stupify right back at the werewolf. Greyback avoided the spell with easy but seemed surprise to see her standing. At the same time, the other werewolf who was with him joined the fight, raising his wand in her direction. She was cornered and her head hurted. In this circunstance she could take one down, sure, but two... she doubted she could be fast enough.

“Well, well, well, she’s a witch.” Greyback said, assessing her, wand loose in his hand. He knew he had the upper hand and was toying with her. If the situation wasn’t desperate she would’ve made a sarcastic comment.

“Who are you?” asked the other werewolf. He was young, tall and had big and terryfing yellow eyes. Hermione remembered him vaguely, maybe he was in Hogwarts at some point. They probably had some classes together and now he was going to kill her.

She prepared herself for an attack. If she was going to die, she was going down fighting. As a last thought before the fight began, she thought that she had made a good decision in not letting Seamus come. She was sure that at this point he would be already dead. Hermione knew that pain and what it made you do. She wanted to die too when Harry died, and wants to die everyday that she doesn’t have news on Ron or the Weasleys. Still, she was about to fight for her life and she wasn’t going to make it easy on them. Not when the people she loved died fighting.

She avoided the first spell with a _protego_ and avoided another when she got away from the wall. She was cornered. She could avoid the spell but she didn’t have a opening to make a counterattack. There was no way out, she was cornered. Hermione readied herself to launch a _sectumsempra_ but it wasn’t necessary. From somewhere on the end of the street, two death curses knocked down the two Death Eaters with a loud noise.

She stopped, frozen again, terrified and even more dizzy. She tried to take a breath but couldn’t and the pain in her head was getting worse and spreading. Someone approached her and she saw the world spinning. The pain in her head was now in every part of her body and she felt like she was on fire. The person tried to talk to her but she couldn’t listen, she couldn’t see, her vision swimming in tears. She put her arms around herself and fell to the floor, weak. She didn’t understand what was happening.

“We need to get out of here.” she finally could hear the person say. He took her in his arms and in her delirious mind she thought that she recognized that voice.

The pain was so intense that she almost missed the moment that he apparated with her. She found herself incapable of concentrate in anything else, like where she was and who he was. Her breathing got faster and desperate and the person quickly put her down.

Even in her fogged brain she could feel he was as desperate as her, more, even. His hands were shaking when he put her in someplace soft; a bed or a couch, she had no idea. He disappeared, taking all the heat from his body away and leaving her cold, so cold. She was cold-sweating and delirious and was absolutely sure that she was in hell.

The man came back moments later and forced her mouth open, pouring a bitter liquid down her throat. Hermione chocked but swallowed everything that she could. The fire inside her was the first thing to diminish and with it the worst of the pain. Her body calmed down enough for her to start breathing normally and her heartbeat slowed to a less intense rhythm. She was covered in sweat and her body ached all over. A sigh of relief coming from her right made her remember that she wasn’t alone.

Hermione turned her head and if she had enough strenght, she would be surprised. Looking at her, equally distressed, was Draco Malfoy, the last person she thought to find in this world.

By reflex, she tried to get away from him and get her wand, but the simple moviment made her cry out in great pain.

“Don’t get up. It will still gona hurt for a long while.” He said. Hermione nodded, incapable of doing anything else. “Drink this.” He put a bottle in her hand and she looked at him, doubtful. He laughed without humour. “Honestly, Granger, I just saved your life, why would I have all this trouble just to kill you ten minutes later?”

She considered him for some moments before drinking everything down. She noticed immediately that she knew the taste. Dreamless sleep potion, her brain supplied. Hermione gave back the flask and he got up to put it atop a table precariously standing in the corner. He came back and looked at her with uncertainty, then came closer and took her in his arms again, ignoring the cries of pain she made. He put her on the bed carefuly and covered her with an old sheet.

“Sleep. You’ll feel better when you wake up.”

He made to get up from his position by her side but she held his arm, making him stop. He looked at her, confused, and she cleared her throat.

“Thank you.” She whispered weakly. Hermione just had time to see him nod and then the potion did it's job and she sunk into unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any thoughts???
> 
> You can find me as karistiel on tumblr if you want to have a chat :]


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, hello! Here comes the second chapter! It`s very soon but this is probably one of the most important parts of the story, and I'm so excited with this fic that here I am.  
> thanks for the kudos and comment!
> 
> the song for this chapter is House of Cards by Scorpions

_how you know what it’s like_

_when good luck has changed the sides_

_and no sun shines in the dark_

_and no angels ever hear your prayers in the night_

_when your fears come up your spine, when your life turns upside down it breaks your heart_

_when you get crushed in a house of card_ _s_

-[Scorpions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk6tSeuavN8)

 

Hermione woke up startled; she had a crazy dream where Draco Malfoy saved her life. She laughed with herself thinking how bizarre that would be, but then she looked around and noticed she wasn’t on the tent she always slept, or her bedroom, or any place that she recognized, for that matter. Hermione felt like crying when she realized that it hasn’t been a dream; Malfoy had killed the two Death Eaters and saved her life.

He probably heard her waking up because moments later he was opening the bedroom door.

“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.” he mocked her. Hermione tried to get up, but her body didn’t want to collaborate, making her ache all over and muffle a sound of pain. Quickly she became alert, keeping her eyes focused on the slytherin while she still tried to move somewhere, anywhere.

Draco clicked his tongue while watching her attempts. He scoffed, impatient after a few seconds and approached her. “You won’t have enough strenght for that, Granger.” he announced.

“What did you do to me, Malfoy?” she accused, still trying to move any part of her body without dying of pain.

The blond man sighed and sat on the foot of the bed, at a safe distance from her and she stopped to watch him. Now that she was really looking at him, she could see how tired his features looked. Draco looked like he aged at least ten years and didn’t resemble not even a little bit the old Malfoy that she knew in Hogwarts. For starter Hermione noticed that he was wearing muggle clothes, very simple and very old ones; his hair, immaculate before, now fell on his eyes, messy and a bit dirty.

“It’s going to be a while until the collateral effects of the potion starts to wear off.” he revealed and sighed again, looking at her. “At least one week until you get strong enough to walk.”

“What potion?” she asked, alarmed again. He briefly looked at her and then diverted his gaze.

“The curse that Greyback throwed at you... it’s called _Interius Ignem_.” he looked at her again and catched her confused gaze. “Yeah, no, I don’t believe that you ever heard of it.” he said. “It’s the brand-new creation of our dear Dark Lord.” he revealed, chuckling bitterly.

“What does it do?” Hermione asked, swallowing dry, feeling a dread cold engulf her spine.

“Well, you were good in latin, Granger, so that should be easy to figure it out.” when she just kept looking at him, he rolled his eyes. “The curse melts you from the inside, and very slowly your organs turn to mush. If you’re lucky enough you die quickly, otherwise the suffering could last for long hours.” he avoided her eyes and Hermione saw his adam apple’s go up and down in his throat.

“And the potion?” she asked, slowly and in a low tone, trying to break the tension caused by the weight of his words. Hermione could recognize that haunted look anywhere, the look of someone who have lost too much. He finally stopped ignoring her and ran a hand through his face.

“It neutralizes the effects of the curse. If took soon it could avoid any internal damage.”

Hermione nodded. She was thinking it was something like that. She looked around the room for a moment, trying to collect her thoughts.

“I can’t stay here for a week, Malfoy.” she announced after awhile.

“You have no choice.”

With that, he got up from the bed and left the bedroom, leaving a stunned Hermione behind. But then came back seconds later with her wand and her bag in his hands. He put them on the desk sitting by the bed and faced her. “Don’t use it on me.” he demanded and left again, closing the door behind him.

Finally alone, Hermione allowed her eyes to wander around the room. Besides the bed she was lying down, there was a closet on the other side of the room, a dresser and a broken mirror hanging behind the door. The walls had a sickening color that maybe was white someday and the carpet were dark but faded. The only window was covered in pieces of wood and a thick velvet curtain that was open, letting the daylight come in through the cracks. On the bedside table, right next to her wand, was a digital clock that showed day and time. Was it possible that she slept a whole day? If so, Hermione hoped that Neville and Seamus were far away from Mozambique with the others.

Hermione had so many questions running in her head and she didn’t know which one was the most important and she was still exhausted and very weak. She took a deep breath when felt the tears coming and swallowed hard. It wasn’t the moment to be emotionally weak. She had to figure it out what Draco wanted from her and what he was going to do with her now that she was mostly defenseless. She wanted to believe that he wasn’t going to do something bad but the last two years on the run teached her to never let her guard down; and the last seven years at Hogwarts teached her not to trust Draco Malfoy.

Fighting hard against the fog on her head, the last thing that Hermione though before unconsciousness took over again, was that she needed to grab her wand.

*

Whe she woke up again she couldn’t see anything. At first, she thought that something had happened with her eyes but as the time passed and her vision adjusted to the darkness, she realized that the room was just dark. She tried one more time to move and had a little success. She reached for her wand on the bedside table and sat on the bed. Althought she could feel her hands and arms with a little less pain, her legs felt like they were made of jelly and hurted I lot.

She heard a sound that seemed like glass being swept and registered that that was what woke her up in the first place. Holding the wand tight in her hand she tried to hear more. A weak glow entered through the cracks of the door and, at this point, her eyes were adjusted enough to the darkness. She noticed then that a big black coat was thrown over her legs above the sheet from before and that the curtains were closed; she noticed that there was a glass of water on the table too.

Still suspicious with everything that was happening Hermione took the glass in her weak hands and smelled it. Besides a light smell of rust there wasn’t anything else. But still, it could likely be something that didn’t leave a trace behind; she put the glass back down on the table.

In the dark, cold and basically incapable all she could do was wait or draw attention to her, so she picked the former. At least her wand was secure in her hand. Many minutes later the door opened, and the silhouette of Draco appeared holding a plate in one hand and a glass on the other. She immediatly smelled the food and her stomach made an embarrassing noise, interrumpting any word she meant to say.

He chuckled and entered the bedroom approaching the bed and eyeing the full glass still seating on the bedside table. He shaked his head in annoyance and looked at her.

“Hungry?” he asked. Hermione just kept looking at him with her wand in fist. He sighed, putting his offerings down and taking a full spoon from the plate. He filled it with the soup and swallowed, drinking from the glasses too. Then he raised his eyebrows and looked impatient to her. When she lowered her hand, he left. Hermione kept looking at him when she let go of the wand and took the glass of water. She took the first sip and involuntary moaned when the water cooled her dry throat. She was so thirsty and didn’t even realized before. She looked up to see mockery in Draco’s face and a candlestick in his hand; he was also pushing an old chair. He put the chair next to the bed and the candle on the floor, then got up and reached for the closet on the wall. There were lots of clothes hanging inside, male and female, and Hermione had to take a deep breath to avoid throwing up everything that she just ate thinking about what happened to the owners of the place that they hadn’t take anything with them. And if Draco had some part in this.

Hearing her, Draco clenched his fists on the door of the closet, annoyed. He was absolutely sure of what she was thinking and had to take a deep breath himself to calm down.

“It was empty when I found it.” he answered the silent question that was hanging in the air between them.

Hermione just nodded and tried to take control of her emotions. After almost a minute of him looking through the clothes in the closet, Draco seemed to have found what he was looking and made his way to her with two pieces of clothing in hand.

“Put them on.” demanded him. Hermione wanted to protest but remembered that she was still wearing her blood-stained clothes and the jumper that Draco was offering seemed much warmer. She made to started changing but stopped when she saw that he was still there, sitting on the chair. “What now?” he asked when he saw that she was looking at him. She just kept looking, clothes still in hand and he sighed. “Nothing I haven’t seen on a woman before.” he retorted but got up and left the bedroom.

Quickly, Hermione took her dirty clothes off and put the clean ones on. When she was pushing the jumper over her head, Draco came back with a thick and heavy comforter and put it over her.

“Why don’t just put a warming spell on the house?” she asked, even though she already knew the answer.

“I do the minimum of magic as possible, Granger, so I can spend more time in one place without drawing too much attention. Now, drink this.” He said, giving her a flask, much like the one from the first night.

“What’s that?” she asked but took the bottle in her hand and opened. Once more her brain provided the answer before he could. “Invigoration Draught.” she revealed, and he nodded. “Where do you find all those potions?”

Draco scratched his head and shrugged. “I make them.”

Hermione couldn’t say that she was surprised. She has lots of memories from him as one of the best students in potions class right beside her, even when Snape wasn’t the professor.

“I do what I can with what I can find.” he continued.

Both kept silent as Hermione, with difficulty, lifted the flask to her mouth and drank the whole potion. Before the flask could fall from her still weak hands, he took it and put on the bedside table. Sighing, Hermione closed her eyes and waited for the potion to do its job. In only a few moments she could feel the effects; she was still very tired but didn’t feel like she was about to fall asleep again and that was something. Her head was clearer than it has been in days and her arms weren’t so heavy anymore, even though the legs were still the same way.

“Two of those per day and maybe you’ll be able to get up soon.” he garanted. Not having anything to say to that, she just nodded.

A heavy silence fell between them for a few moments and Hermione was the first to break it.

“How the hell did you found me?” she asked.

He smiled, even thought it didn’t reach his eyes, and reclined on the chair. “Lucky strike.” He answered. “For me and for you I should say.” he continued, laughing histericaly. Hermione waited patiently for him to go on. “I‘ve been looking for you for more than a year, Granger. I must confess, you do a really good job at hiding. It’s been hard.”

“Not good enough.” She retorted bitterly as Dean’s death was still fresh in her mind. “That doesn’t explain how you found me.”

“Darwin is the center of Voldemort’s power in Australia. The moment you set foot on that street you alerted the Death Eaters on watch and alerted me too. For your lack of luck, Greyback found you before any Death Eaters could arrive which would be only just a question of time. Lucky for us I went to have a look too.”

“How did you know that it was me?” The slytherin streched his legs and pushed his hand in his left pocket taking a piece of clothe almost irrecognizable. With a start Hermione realized what it was; her favorite scarf, the one she used everywhere at Hogwarts. “But how...?” she asked, surprise and confusion written all over her face. Draco looked at her somberly.

“I went to your house on England, although I was confused for quite a moment when I didn’t saw any trace that you ever even existed there.” he looked questioning to her, but she just shrugged. “Your parentes weren’t there but I am sure that you already know that. I took every book that I found there but unfortunately none was yours.” he sighed and avoided her gaze. “I didn’t know where to look anymore. I had been to everywhere that you could have been and found nothing. So I went to Hogwarts, or what was left of it.”

Hermione sucked air through her mouth, horrified that he would come back there. Hogwarts was one of the most heavily guarded places since the battle had ended with Harry’s death. What on Earth could make him take such a risk?

“It was very stupid of me, I can see that now, but I was without options.” he took a deep breath too and ran his hand through his face. The look in his eyes made her think that maybe he was remembering everything. “I spent two days running from Death Eaters, trying to find a way inside the castle and then I remembered that I had the answer all this time.” Draco took hold of his sleeve and pushed it up, exposing his fading dark mark. Even if it was almost erased she still felt a blind moment of terror the second that her eyes landed on it. She diverted her gaze and Draco covered it again.

“After almost two weeks looking everywhere, without even knowing what the hell I was looking for, I found it below one of the ceilings that went down on the Gryffindor Tower. I knew what it was the moment I put my eyes on it; I remember that you used to wear it almost everyday, everywhere you’d go. I felt like crying in relief.”

“How did you know I was going to be here?” she insisted.

“I didn’t. Like I said, it was luck.” he said. “Of course, there is a spell, dark magic of course, that could help me. The spell is like a tracker of sorts and I knew I could make it work with the alert spell of Voldemort, since I’m not good enough to make the actual spell work right. I needed something from you, that had your DNA, hence the scarf.” he explained. “I’ve been following your trail for months and marked every place that you’ve been.” he got up and pulled a big bag from under the bed, taking a map from inside it. Hermione raised her eyebrows when she noticed that it was marked pretty much like the one they had at the camp. “After awhile without nothing I decided to go to places you haven’t been before and wait. This is the second one and I’ve been here for five months. I was losing hope when the spell went crazy.”

“And what has such importance for you to go through all this just to find me?”

“I have some information that you’re gonna like.”

“And what is it?” she asked, lost.

“Harry Potter is alive, and I want to help you find him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it seems like Harry isnt so dead after all, ahn? hahahahaha many explanations coming ahead, of course! But harry being alive without anyone knowing was the most important thing in here and is whats going to change everything from now on. Also, I've never been to Australia so every info here was basically from google.  
> I really hope you're still liking it.
> 
> Happy New years ya'll. I wish you a wonderful 2019!
> 
> I'm karistiel on tumblr if you want to have a chat :]


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys!! First, wow, thank you so much for the comments, kudos and 100+ hits. I'm so glad with this!
> 
> Here goes the third chapter!  
> >>Trigger warning for panic attacks << if you're not sure about reading it, please don't. Let's take care of our mental health, shall we?
> 
> other than that, I really hope you`ll keep reading and letting me know. Thank you so much for the ones reading it :]
> 
> the song for this chapter is Siren Song by Jill andrews.

_now I'm treading water_

_can't touch the bottom anymore_

_driftin' so far_

_I'll soon won't even see the shore_

_(...) and I'm drowning, oh_

-[Jill Andrews](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbpgeIzT_-M)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hermione was in shock. That was the best word that she could come up with at the moment. Her brain had decided to short circuit and she could only look at the man sitting in front of her like he had lost his goddamn mind.

“Granger?” he asked, uncertain clear in his voice at the lack of reaction from her. Her name brought her out of her head and she reacted… by trying to attack Draco with her hands.

The slytherin jumped from the chair and advanced in her direction right before she lost her balance and was about to fall from the bed. He held her by the waist and put her back on the bed. Hermione, without losing any time, started to throw punches and more punches on his chest, on his face, everywhere she could reach.

“How could you? Why would you say something like that? Why? How…?” she murmured incoherently. She was furious, livid! How dare he?

“Granger? Stop, damn it!” he screamed at her. “Listen to me!” he tried to hold her arms that were still flying everywhere trying to hit him. “Hermione!” he shouted, holding her face in his hands forcing her to look at him. He almost let her go when he saw the raw pain in her eyes but kept going. “Hermione.” He called again, softer this time. “He’s alive. I swear on my life, on my mother’s grave even.”

Now, thick tears ran freely down her face. “But how?” she whispered. The punches had stopped and now Hermione was holding Draco’s arm like her life depended on it. “How did he survived? I saw his dead body!” she insisted, crying.

Suddenly Draco felt so, so tired. After so many hellish months he had completed his quest. And he was alive; or at least surviving. Closing his eyes against the wave of two years accumulated of tiredness that came crashing over him, he let his head fall against Hermione’s.

Their foreheads touched, and Draco felt Hermione’s hands ran through his hair in a comfort gesture; he didn’t even remembered when was the last time that he washed it. The touch was so unexpected but so longed for, that he collapsed right there.

“Draco?” she called his attention to the moment again.

“He was never dead” he revealed, but his voice was so low that if she wasn’t so close she wouldn’t hear it. He was trying to remember when was the last time that anyone had touched him with such tenderness as Narcissa Malfoy was dead for most than one year. A very long year without a minimum touch.

Taking his hands from her face, Hermione reclined on the bed pulling him with her. When he came without any protest, she had to hold back her tears. Merlin, she could only imagine what he had been through in search of her in the last couple of years. How long was he alone? What horrors had he seen? How long haven’t he had a good rest? Or slept? For Godric! How long was she his only hope?

Trying to adjust two bodies on the bed without movement on her legs proved to be a difficult task. After some attempts Draco slid down the bed and laid his head on her lap. Minutes later he fell asleep while Hermione’s hand still ran through his hair.

Seeing such vulnerability clear on the face of someone that one day were capable of being cruel with her, made Hermione feel as vulnerable as. So she decided that, after two years being strong for his friends and family, it was there, with Draco Malfoy’s head in her lap, that she would be weak for herself. And then she let the tears ran freely and silently, until they would dry for themselves.

The gryffindor didn’t knew how many hours had passed when the last of her tears fell down her face, although the candle on the candlestick that Draco had brought earlier was almost at the end, but she felt lighter.

Draco was still sleeping soundly, and Hermione suspected that he wasn’t going to wake up anytime soon. Having only the silence and the semi darkness as company, Hermione let herself think about the only thing that she had been avoiding. Harry Potter was alive. Her best friend, the one that she had seen lifeless in Hagrid’s arms on that traumatic night. The one for whom she cried in silence every day. The one for whom she would get up every morning to fight. The one that she would never give up, not in a million years. Was. Alive.

The feelings that came crashing down with the realization of that declaration were suffocating. She tried to control herself but she couldn’t stop. Desperate, she started to hyperventilate. Hermione haven’t had a panic attack in bloody years.

Looking around her and all that darkness, she felt a such strong terror. Her breathing became erratic and her pulse skyrocketed. She tried to move her legs and couldn’t, the panic rising to levels that she wasn’t able to think of anything else. It seemed impossible to let go of the fear and she started to shake when the room got out of focus. She closed her eyes, trying to remember how to breath, she tried to focus on herself and the bed she was sitting; tried to convince herself that there wasn’t anything trying to hurt her, not this time.

Draco woke up in alarm, alerted by Hermione’s restlessness. He looked at her in the dark and could see the terror in her eyes, her breath in rapid cadence; he just knew. At this point, he could recognize the symptoms of a panic attack anywhere.

“Hermione?” he tried to call her. By the weak glow of the fire in the living room he could see that she was shaking and her eyes were shut tightly. “Hermione?” he tried one more time. This time she opened her unfocused eyes and after a few seconds tried to focus on the figure in front of her, but she just couldn’t so she closed her eyes again. “Can I touch you?” he asked and she nodded weakly. He took her hand and put it in his chest. “Breath with me.” he urged.

The two of them kept like that for a while, with Draco encouraging her and Hermione trying to match her breathing with his. After a moment, Hermione opened her eyes and almost sobbed when she could actually focus on Draco’s face. She was shaking and sweating but her breathing was calmer and synchronized with his and the feeling of terror was gone. She felt so tired after all this that the arm that was still in his hold weakened and fell, together with her strength. Draco helped her lay down and she sighed, exhausted. She was always exhausted after a panic attack as brutal as this one.

“How did you know what to do?” she asked as he pulled the comforter over her body until it reached her neck. She was even more cold now.

“I had them as a child.” He answered, shrugging, turning around and taking the candlestick from the floor with him.

From inside the room Hermione could hear Draco’s footsteps around the house. Minutes later she saw him pass with another comforter, just like the one she was using, and a book. She watched him move the heavy curtains from the living room window and look outside, from between the cracks on the woods.

It was day, but the sun wasn’t shining, and the sky was dark and heavy; probably some snow on the way. Sighing, Draco closed the curtains again and snuggled up on the carpet in front of the fireplace, putting the comforter around him and opening the book.

With a last look at the slytherin sitting on the other room, Hermione let the exhaustion beat her and fell asleep.

*

Hermione woke up with a startle and tried to push herself up on the bed. Scared, she looked around with her wand in her fist, ready to attack. When her eyes found Draco, sleeping soundly on the living room couch, everything that had happened on the last days had come back to her mind. Putting her wand down, she sighed deeply. Soon, her nose smelled food and her stomach rebelled against itself, hungry.

Looking around, Hermione found a plate, a glass of water and a jar of potion on the wooded chair that was still sitting beside the bed.

She took the potion first, immediately feeling better, then she ate and drank, in record time. Afterwards, she piled everything and put it back on the chair. She still couldn't move her legs but she could already move her toes, which was victory in itself. But still, she knew going to the bathroom alone wouldn't happen. She groaned and took her wand back in her hands, noticing that there was a book by the bedside table; a novel that she knew, oh too well, having seen it on her mom's stuff countless time. Taking the book, she realized that it was actually her mom's book. She felt a pang in her heart and tried to fight those feelings. This wasn't the moment for that. She opened the book and started reading. Reading was good, it kept her mind off things, off all the things that had happened on the last hours, days? She didn't even knew how long she had left the camp behind.

She was almost half way through the book when Draco woke up and sat on the couch. The blond stood up, still wrapped on the comforter, and made his way to some door that Hermione hoped was the bathroom. He came back, minutes later, with his hair dripping wet and took Hermione's forgotten dishes to the kitchen.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, sitting on the chair that was now empty.

“I can feel my toes.” She answered shrugging. He nodded.

“That’s good.”

Both fell in a uncomfortable silence. Refusing to take her eyes off Draco, Hermione just kept looking at him. It was hard not to see him as threat, even after the moment they shared earlier. She didn't know what was going through his head and the reasons for him to be doing it. Eventually, he would want something in exchange for the information he was giving her and could kill her if she didn't gave what he wanted. At this moment, Hermione was trapped to a bed and even with her wand on hand, she couldn't do much if she couldn't run.

Still refusing to let him out of her sight, she observed him observe her. She noticed that he seemed more rested compared with the first time she saw him, although there was still large black circles under his eyes, they looked like they gained a new shine.

Making a disgusted face, Hermione sighed deeply and called his attention to her.

“I need to use the bathroom.” She said. Trying to hide his laugh, Draco took the comforter off her legs and grabbed her at the waist. Surprised at the blond's strength, Hermione squeaked a little when he held her on her feet; her toes touching the carpet. He carried her like a ragdoll to the bathroom, where he opened the door and put her sitting on the toilet. The bathroom was dark except for the light coming from the candles on the living room.

He left her alone and she, with much effort, was able to open her pants and push them down without falling from the toilet. She felt such relief when her bladder just emptied herself for a long time. The worst came the moment that she couldn`t push her pants back up. Her legs weren`t no help and she wanted to cry when she realized what she had to do.

“Malfoy?” she called. He appeared again seconds later and Hermione thanked every entity of this world that it was dark enough to hide her humiliation and embarrassment. “I need help.” She murmured. He nodded and took her at the waist again. All the relief for emptying her bladder was forgotten when she felt him tug her pants up her bum. She was absolutely sure that her face was on fire.

Without much fanfare he put her on the couch in front of the fireplace while Hermione tried to tame her shame and feeling of uselessness. Godric, she couldn’t even go to the bathroom on her own, and what make it worse was that she depended on Draco Malfoy for everything she needed; someone that she hated so much, for he made her life a living hell just mere years ago.

Trying to hide all those feelings, she kept watching him. It was all that she could do, really. He crouched down before the fire and shook his wand, reviving the fire. That was the first time that she saw him use his wand since she arrived there.

Hermione took the comforter that he left on the couch earlier and wrapped herself in it, getting comfortable. He went to the kitchen and, from where she was, she could see a stove lighted up with a caldron on top. The syltherin mixed the spoon, that was inside it, a few times and, taking a eagle feather from a jar he add it to the potion. Invigoration Draught, probably, if she remembered correctly. Noticing the backpack on the table, the Gryffindor imagined that it was his stock of ingredients.

Ignoring his movements on the kitchen, she focused on the questions that she needed to ask. She barely knew where to start, to be honest, or if he would be willing to answer. She decided that she would try anyway, so she cleared her throat to get his attention.

Looking behind him, from where he was, still looking through the things on the table and in his bag, he waited for her.

“Where we are?” she asked, waving her hand around the house.

“On a muggle village on Perth. The Death Eaters don't care much for small towns.”

Both of them fell in silence, Hermione considering what to ask next.

“How do you know that he is alive?” she asked. At the end, that was the most important question.

He ignored her and kept making the inventory of his ingredients while she tried to be patient.

“How do you intend to find him?” she tried again. “Why?”

He sighed and finally let go of what he was doing and sat on the arm of the couch that she was sitting.

“On the night of the battle at Hogwarts, when Potter went to meet with Voldemort at the Forbbiden Forest, the Dark Lord found out that Potter had become part of his soul, one of his horcrux. Seeing himself on Potter, he became more of a life insurance than an enemy.” He told.

“But Hagrid… he swore that Harry was…” Hermione swallowed dry. The memories from that day were horrible. The screams of Ginny, Ron crying, her own devastation and everyone around her just breaking in front of her eyes.

“Draught of Living Death.” He laughed humorless. “Who could have known that something so simple would be the fall of the wizard world?”

“And how do you know all of this?” she asked, skeptical. How could he?

“My mother was the one who administered it.” He confessed. Hermione nodded. It made sense.

“And why now? Why help me save Harry now?”

“Now?” he mocked with a cold smile. Hermione shuddered internally. “I carry this secret with me for almost two years, Granger, because the only person that I trust to do something with it is you.” He avoided her gaze. “This needs to end. Voldemort needs to die and Harry Potter is still our last and only chance.” He looked at her again, running his hands trhought his hair, his eyes so, so tired. “I'm so tired of running away. We all are.”

“How do you know that he is still alive?” she asked in a whisper.

“I saw him.” He revealed. “And that cost me everything.”

Then he got up, took a towel that was draped over a chair, a candle and a box of matches and locked himself in the bathroom.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about any mistakes, like I said before, I don't have a beta and do all the editing myself and some things can pass without notice. 
> 
> As always, you can find me at karistiel.tumblr.com :]


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, I'm back! If there is anyone reading this, please come say hiiiii  
> I'm sorry it took me so long to update this but, unfortunaley, life got in the way as always.
> 
> this chapter has a lot of action so I hope you'll like it.  
> no trigger warnings this time.
> 
> the song for this chapter is Run For Cover by The Killers.

_don't be afraid of the fear, that's a played out trap_

_you know you're not the only one_

_and don't look back, just run for cover_

-[The Killers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO7JGfqPB0s)

 

 

Two days later Hermione could feel her legs, although she still didn’t have the strength to keep herself standing alone. She had discovered that Draco had kept a collection of her mother’s books; he said it kept his mind occupied. She also had discovered that the backpack she saw before had a undetectable extension charm and had countless ingredients, jars of potions and a smashed caldron, plus the one that stayed all times on top of the fire on the kitchen.

Now, Hermione sat on the bed with the map that Draco had spread open in front of her, looking at all the marked points. Last night they both had discussed about how to go from there when she was capable of walking. The blond had been irreducible about accompanying her; Hermione seriously doubted he would get her out of his sight after so long searching for her. Resigned to take Draco with her to the camp – if she could find it – but still alert to everything that the slytherin did, both gathered the maximum of clothes they could and a bunch of covers and stuffed it all in their charmed bags together with the maximum of canned food they could. They had no idea what to expect besides the cold of the winter.

Hermione had just decided to get back to Mozambique and go from there, look for clues about the location of the camp, when a cold wind washed through the house wiping out all the candles. A sense of dread descended on her and she felt herself shiver all over. Hermione wrapped the map again and stuffed it inside her bag.

“Malfoy!” she called, taking her wand at the same time that the front door exploded. When she tried to get up Draco was there, passing his arm under her arm and holding her by the waist, supporting her from the side and holding his own wand on the other hand.

On the darkness of the house the first charm was thrown, lighting up the masks of the Death Eaters that were already crossing the living room. Throwing a sequence of protection spells, Draco closed the door of the bedroom with a bang, making the sound reverberate all over the house. Quickly Hermione casted several protection spells on the door as Draco put his pack on his back.

“We need to get out now.” Hermione whispered as she listened for movement on the other side of the door. Still holding her he tried to apparate.

“No, no, no… shit!” he exclaimed in horror. “Anti-apparition charm, Granger, we’re bloody trapped.”

She looked around and spotted the window. “Bombarda Maxima” she screamed at it at the same time that her legs lost its strength, taking both down to the floor. The window and a good portion of the wall fell with a loud noise, leaving a hole behind. Pulling them to their feet again, Draco headed to the opening while the door of the bedroom come down with the spells and all, many Death Eaters passing through. Without knowing how strong the anti-apparition charm was and how far it reached, he just kept running, as fast as he could, with the add weight of Hermione that still launched spells at the Death Eaters that kept following them.

In a second, they were running into an alley as he brandished his wand, in the next they were falling to their knees in a living room.

“Where the hell we are, Granger?” asked the slytherin. They had apparated but he wasn’t the one who did it. Still heaving a breath, Hermione let herself fall beside him. Hearing his question, she finally looked around and realizing where they were, she sighed and rubbed her hand through her face.

“We’re still in Australia. This is my parents vacation home.” She explained. “We are in Adelaide.” Still riding the adrenaline of the run, Hermione got up, pulling Draco with her. The house looked empty at first glance, which worried the brunette; she really didn’t expected to find anybody there, but to see it for herself was hard. She expected the house to appear a little bit used than this sea of dust and cobwebs. She shook her head when Draco got her attention and, side by side, they did a scan around the house. After several minutes, after looking every room and every corner, they finally deemed it safe enough. No one was there to find them.

“You okay?” Hermione asked. The blond had barely said a word since they arrived. He just nodded categorically.

After going back to the living room, he helped her sit on the couch. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off she could feel the exhaustion settling in. She could imagine that he felt the same.

“How did they find us?” she asked after a moment of silence.

“They probably followed the trail of my wand. Unforgivable curses always leave a trace behind and normally I would make certain that they couldn’t find me.” He reminded her, voice low, looking exhausted and beaten. Then he got up and started to charm the house around them. “I should’ve remembered it. I didn’t survive two years being reckless.”

“We had some troubled days, Malfoy.” She tried to reason. “Also, I forgot too.”

“You weren’t in any conditions for that. I should’ve make sure that we were safe.” He retorted. “I can’t afford to forget something so important, Granger. We almost died back there. It would all be in vain.”

Hermione nodded, quietly. She knew he was right, but still think he was being a little hard on himself. But she had looked death in the face too many times to not know the feelings she was certain he was feeling right now.

“I don’t know how long we’ll be safe here, but we need to rest.” he said. Helping her, he took both of them to the master bedroom. “It’s better if we are together.” He decreed.

He put her on the bed and once more weaved his wand around the room reciting some spells. Opening the closet doors, he took a bunch of covers that were there and put it on the floor, making a make-shift bed. Hermione was arranging herself in the bed when she noticed what he was doing.

“Malfoy, I believe the bed is big enough for the both of us.” She said. He ignored her and kept arranging the blankets on the floor. “We can use the blankets to cover us and don’t die of hypothermia.” From the window, with the curtains slight ajar, they could see the frost beginning to fall. It was early morning, as showed by the clock on the wall and the cold promised to be harsh. In danger as they was, they couldn’t dare to turn on any electricity on the house, or launch another spell.

Closing the curtains, and immersing the room in darkness, Draco lied on the bed beside Hermione e throwed the covers over them.

“Don’t steal the covers.” He threatened before turning to the other side and close his eyes. Hiding a smile, Hermione let the exhaustion take over her body and fell asleep.

*

They woke up cuddling and shrunken on each other. They didn’t know the moment that they got to that position and refused to make any comments about it when they got up to the freezing air around them. The curtains were still firmly shut and the room dark; they barely could see anything before their eyes or each other. Draco got up and locked himself in the bathroom - lights still off, trying not to raise attention – as Hermione put the covers back in their bags. When the blond man left the bathroom, Hermione got up, still unsure on her feet and entered the room, locking the door behind herself and reaching for the sink. She remembered very little details about this house, being the last time she was there, so many years ago. Or in another life. Right now, all that seemed to have happened in another life.

She opened the tap and thanked for the slight warmer water that fell on her hands. She washed her face the best she could and drank a bit of the water. She left the bathroom to find Draco siting back on the bed by the light of a candle that he had took from his backpack. She was presented with an unusual image of Draco that she had refused to see all those days they spent together; a man – not a boy anymore- siting on the bed with his tired face being illuminated by the yellow glow of the candle, crossed legs, bare feet, muggle ill fitting clothes with his head down and blond hair, slightly wet, framing his face. He raised his eyes when she took another step into the room.

“We need to leave Australia as fast as we can.” He murmured. Hermione nodded, still enthralled by that curious scene of Draco Malfoy comfortable. She sat beside him.

“We should keep with the initial plan.” She commented.

“How are your legs?” he asked, looking at the map and not at her.

“Won’t be a problem.” She answered, off handed. He finally took his eyes off the map and looked at her. His grey eyes had an intensity that was almost suffocating as he assessed her.

“I know that charm well enough to know that this isn’t true.” He argued.

“Malfoy, we _need_ to get out of here fast.” She repeated his words, throwing it in his face in frustration.

“It will not work if you can’t barely walk, let alone run. I can’t carry you forever, Granger.” He reasoned.

She sighed, defeated. In the end, she knew he was right. She had been able to go the bathroom on her own but she felt like that was the limit of her strength at the moment.

“In two days, Granger. Two days and we will be out of here.” He promised.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry for any mistakes, i'ts not revised or anything because I didnt had the time to do it. But I still hope you liked it.
> 
> If you want to talk with me about anything, you can find me at karistiel.tumblr.com :]


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! It's been awhile, I know, but I'm back :]  
> Thank you so much to the ones reading. I can't believe this has over 400 hits!
> 
> I really hope you tag along with me, enjoy the chapter!
> 
> *This chapter song is Burn The Witch by Radiohead*

_abandon all reason_

_avoid all eye contact_

_do not react_

_shoot the messengers_

\- [Radiohead](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI2oS2hoL0k)

 

 

"I need to make more potions. The more we have within reach, the greater our chances of survival," said Draco, rising from the bed.

"If you're lucky there's still gas in the kitchen. I don’t think we should use magic for now." Hermione weighed.

"What are you waiting for?" He asked, putting out the candle and leaving them in the dark again. "We will not separate, Granger."

Hermione snorted but followed him down the corridor and down the stairs with his help, finally reaching the kitchen. They closed all the curtains as best as they could, and Malfoy lit the candle again as Hermione checked the gas. She thanked Merlin softly when one of the burner's mouths lit up.

Malfoy took out the brass cauldron she had seen earlier from the backpack and set it on the fire, separating the ingredients side by side.

"Here." He offered her one of the full jars as she sat on the kitchen counter. Hermione drank the liquid without blinking and returned the flask.

Hours passed between the two reading books – that they had read hundreds of times already - and Draco rising from time to time to check the potion on the stove. By the time the morning began to strike, they had three potions and a tiredness. Hermione took another potion, offered by him, and went upstairs to the room with the blond in pursuit.

They took the blankets back from their bags and laid on the bed with their backs to one another. Despite the tiredness, sleep seemed far away. It was Draco who shook the bed, turning his body toward her.

"How many people do you have with you, Granger?" He asked her in whispers. Hermione sighed and laid back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"One hundred and thirteen now," she replied. "We were one hundred and fifty-seven a year ago."

"Are they enough to face Voldemort when the time comes?" He asked grimly.

Hermione shook her head vigorously.

"Most of them are children, Malfoy. The few of us able to really fight diminish everyday," said Hermione.

"They’re all we have for now," Draco replied, containing a weary sigh. The complications were countless each day.

They were silent for a moment.

"We can train them," he tried.

"We tried. They are " _trained_ " as best we can as we run from one corner of the world to the other. We didn’t have the luxury of actually training them. Or purpose," Hermione whispered. Thinking about that was still difficult and it seemed absurd to be real that his best friend was alive and being held captive by the wizard who destroyed the world.

Draco snorted irritably, pulling her out of her thoughts. 

"Most of them are just kids and they're scared, Draco. We haven’t gotten many contacts all this time, most of them are sure that their parents and siblings are dead." Hermione retorted in a bitter voice.

"Who's in charge now?" Draco asked.

"Neville and Seamus," she replied.

With the vision already adjusted to the dark, Hermione saw that Draco did not seem at all impressed and she had to hold a wry smile.

"Believe me when I say they're as good as I am," she said.

"I do not think anyone can be as good as you, Granger." He countered. Hermione was surprised for a moment and thanked for the darkness as she felt her face get warm. "Any idea where they might have gone?"

"Not exactly." Hermione stopped staring at the ceiling to face the man at her side. "We've always chosen random places to lower the chances of some of us being caught and forced to talk."

"Smart," Draco remarked.

"One of us always goes ahead, checks the place chosen, if there were any recent attacks, anything. Find the best spot to set up our camp as safely as possible. If he does not come back in a day, those who stayed will pick another place and leave," she said.

"Do you leave people behind?" He asked, a little shocked.

"We'd get back to they at the first opportunity after everyone else is safe," Hermione revealed. "Besides, it had never happened that someone didn’t come back until now."

"They would never leave you behind, Granger," Draco stated with conviction.

"No." She nodded, acknowledging his point. "At least not by choice. Like I said, we have a hundred people depending on us to survive. Neville is wise enough to move on even without me. "

"But they will come back," he affirmed again.

"Probably." She sighed and closed her eyes. "But we can’t wait for them here. It's too dangerous. "

Draco just nodded.

"We'll be back in Mozambique in two days and we'll look for them," Draco assured her.

 * 

It was night when they packed up all their belongings again and undid the charms around the house. In an office, Hermione had found a picture of her parents and without hesitation took it out of the picture frame and stuffed it into her purse. Draco just watched curiously from the door.

With everything ready, the two held hands and Hermione took a deep breath. Draco's hand was warm and hers was sweating nervously. With a slight dizziness the two of them staggered amid a half-frozen forest. Draco held Hermione by the waist as her legs wobbled and everything spinned. Apparating long distance with someone was always a problem, but due to her weak physical state and the amount of potions she took each day, it had been even worse.

"I just need a moment," she murmured, and he nodded but still held her.

Finally she recovered enough to look around her. Where there used to be several tents and people, there was nothing. Nothing that denounced someone's presence. No footprints, no branches, nothing left behind. If that was not a huge problem for her at that moment, Hermione would be proud of the work they were doing. It was not for nothing that Draco had taken two years to find her by chance.

Hermione paced around, watching closely for anything that might catch her eye. Behind her, Draco watched.

"I've tried this for months and months, Granger," said the blonde.

"But you didn’t know what to look for, Malfoy," Hermione stated, but it lacked certainty in her voice. Still, Draco nodded, agreeing and shrugging.

"And what are we looking for?" He asked, looking around as well.

"I really don’t know." The witch confessed in a whisper. Hermione laughed a little hysterically and Draco looked at her worried. "I really, really, do not know," she murmured as she caught her breath, some involuntary tears streaming down her cheeks; Draco didn’t know whether through despair or laughter.

"What if we can never find them?" She asked after a while, catching her breath. "You never really managed to find me."

What would they do then? How would they find her friends? How would they face Voldemort to save Harry? How would the others know that Harry was alive? Hermione began to hyperventilate and felt Draco's hands on her face, forcing her to look at him.

"Focus, Hermione," the blonde whispered but it sounded like a command. "We’ll find them and give an end to this nightmare, I promise."

She had had two panic attacks in less than a week, even though she had not had one during the two years she was on the run. It made her feel so weak and strong at the same time. She seemed to be able to feel so many emotions that she had concealed over time, finding it a waste to involve feelings in that already extremely complicated equation that was her life in the camp. When one is responsible for so many lives, one learns to give less importance to oneself. Harry's news had activated something inside her and opened an exit door.

Taking a deep breath, she felt Draco's hands leave her face though she still felt the warmth of his body nearby.

"Think, Granger," he said after a few moments of silence. "Where would you think to go?"

Already evidently recovered, Hermione pulled the map out of the pouch, spread it on the forest floor, and probed for long minutes.

"We could start looking around this country."

Draco crouched beside her and looked at the map dotted with red and black dots.

"They don’t make many attacks on the African continent," he commented.

"Most are poor countries, there’s nothing good for them there," she observed disgustedly.

"They would not go that far without you," said Draco.

"We have to try somewhere," she murmured, lost in thought. "We won’t find anything here."

"And the more we keep exposed here, the more we're in danger." He pondered.

"We're going to Namibia," said Hermione, convinced.

"As you wish," he countered as they clasped hands and apparated.

Fortunately, this time, the apparition did not do so badly. A slight dizziness and only that. Quickly they pulled their hoods over their heads and looked around. It was still night and there were some people on the street, walking to their homes. At first glance there was nothing abnormal. They walked cautiously along the side of a narrow street in the faint light of the outer lamps of the house facades.

There was a tension in the air as they turned the street. They did not see anything, but then figures began to draw nearer as the lights turned out. Hermione and Draco began to make their way back, wands in hand, any pretense forgotten. The blond looked back, cursing softly as Death Eaters surrounded them from behind, while Dementors surrounded them from the front. They had to get out of there.

He took Hermione's wrist and disapparated as one of the masked wizards approached her. They fell with everything on the forest floor back in Mozambique. In a second of stunning, Draco realized that they had not gone away alone, and the Death Eater who had caught up with them was recovering from the trip and raising his wand.

Draco managed to deflect the spell casted on Hermione but narrowly missed the chance to protect the spell aimed at him. The piercing pain started at the arm and ran up the shoulder. Draco heard the Death Eater's thud falling on the soft ground when Hermione killed him.

"Malfoy?" She called, approaching. "For Merlin," she exclaimed as she saw the blood dripping down his dark sweatshirt. Quickly she opened the zipper and opened his coat, lifting his shirt and exposing the expanding wound as best she could. She recognized the pattern of action of that spell. Trembling, she held the wand with her bloody hands and recited the counter-spell.

" _Vulnera Sanentur_ "

The spell was weak, and the wounds started bleeding again. Hermione wanted to cry in desperation but took a deep breath and concentrated. She was not good at strong healing spells in those kinds of situations.

" _Vulnera Sanentur_ ," She repeated. This time it worked better. The blood drained slowly as she repeated the spell over the wound.

When there was no more blood or cut, Hermione dropped her wand at her side and sighed with relief. That whole scene was a deja vu and made her stomach turn.

"I guess I managed to avoid the worst of the spell," she said after a brief silence. "How it feels?"

"As if I had a deja vu," Draco murmured, still lying, moaning with the familiar pain of a Sectumsempra. "Very painful." He continued panting.

Hermione wanted to laugh at his words but just took the wand back, rising to murmur some temporary protective spells around them. When she finished, she realized that Draco had sat and was drinking water from one of the bottles they had found at her parents' home in Adelaide.

"How are you?" She asked again, bending down to look at the reddened, sensitive skin where the spell had once struck.

"Better than him," sighed the blonde, pointing his chin to a spot on the forest floor.

Finally Hermione looked at the Death Eater's body stretched out on the floor a few feet away.

"What should we do with him?" She asked, weary and a little bewildered. She had not felt this lost since the day of the Battle at Hogwarts.

Draco thought for a while.

"Take the robe and the mask, it might be useful for us in the future," he said thoughtfully. Hermione got up and started to do as she was told, agreeing that was a good idea. "We bury the body, so they do not find it. The less they know we're here, the safer we are. "

She put the mask and robe in her pouch with the greatest semblance of heartbreak possible. Draco wanted to laugh but the situation was too serious.

"Granger, we cannot do this again," he began. "We can’t take that risk or we'll end up dead."

"I know." She stiffened. "We'll spend a few more hours here, you need some time. I'll stand guard." With that, she cast some more spells around them and went to the dead Death Eater. With a wave of her wand, she dug a deep pit and levitated the body to it, making the earth settle back over him. She did not want to think about how good she has been to dig pits with her wand over those two years.

"Do you think they're still in Africa?" He asked after a while.

"Yes," she replied, looking intently around them.

"Any chance they went to Namibia and got caught?"

Hermione shook her head violently, upset by this idea.

"They would not be so reckless. We have our system, Malfoy. "

"That's what you ..." Draco cut himself in the middle and stood up with his wand in his hand, alert.

"What was it?" Hermione asked, quickly mimicking his position.

"There's someone here," he whispered. A biting wind swept through them, shaking their hair and making chills ran down their spines. With the wind came the sound of the leaf-dragging. If it had not been for Draco, who had spent the last few years fleeing alone around places and places, no one would have noticed the sound of feet that were almost hidden by the noise of nature.

"We're protected here," she replied, but kept her wand pointed at the forest before her.

"Revelium," Draco murmured, making the dead leaves rebel on the floor and finally show the intruder. The first thing they saw was that he wore no robe or mask. For a moment they thought about the possibility of being a Death Eater disguised as a Muggle, trying to catch their attention.

The person, still bewildered, lifted his wand and scanned the forest. From where they were, they could not be seen, he knew that, but it did not make them feel better to see him approach.

Draco was ready to hit him with the curse of death when Hermione let out a relieved noise.

"It's Neville," she sighed, waving her wand around herself and stepping out of their protective circle. "Neville?" She called. The man turned abruptly and sighed with obvious relief when he saw her. They both ran to hug each other.

"I thought you were dead," he whispered, pulling himself away from her embrace and staring at her from head to foot, looking for obvious injuries.

"I’m fine. I had some unforeseen things on the way, " she said.

"I knew you’d be back here," he said. "Me and Simas have been looking for you here all week. We were losing hope. "

Before Hermione could respond, she felt her body being pulled back behind his friend.

"Draco Malfoy." He heard Neville's incredulous voice in front of him. Hermione tried to pull away from him when she also saw Draco undoing the circle of protection she had created around them.

The blonde looked bored, but Hermione saw his hand tightening on his wand.

"Neville," she called.

"What are you doing here?" He asked harshly. "It was you who gave them to us!" He cried, as if he had just understood something very obvious. "Because of you, Dino is dead." He spat.

Neville's wand released sparks when the first spell was cast. Draco defended himself easily. Neville continued casting spells behind spells while Draco only protected himself. Awakening from his torpor, Hermione finally intervened.

"Neville!" she shouted to her friend who looked at her quickly and threw a piece of broken credit card.

"It's the portal key, go! I’ll take care of him."

"I'm not going anywhere, Neville." she screamed back, finally managing to get out from behind him and step in front of Draco. "Malfoy is with me."

Neville looked confused at first, but then flushed with anger.

"He bewitched you!" He stated aggressively. "Hermione, what did he do to you?"

"He saved my life!" Revealed the witch. "I would be dead had it not been for him."

"But..." began Neville. "He's a Death Eater, Hermione, why would he do that?"

"I haven’t been a Death Eater for years, Longbottom." Draco's voice was heard for the first time.

Neville's wand was still pointed at him, even as Hermione was firmly in the way. She approached her friend and lowered his wand, looking into the eyes of what had once been a lumpy, silly boy.

"We need him, Neville. Harry is alive and we need to save him." she knew the news was too strong for the moment, but she had no choice. Neville looked shocked for a moment but then became angry again.

"He's fooling you, how can you not see that?" she murmured in disbelief.

"I feel it, Neville, I feel like Harry is alive, I always felt. I thought it was something that I wanted so bad that it seemed real to me, but now I know it's real. "

"We can’t trust him, Hermione," implored Neville, still extremely suspicious.

"I don’t, but I do believe in him," she assured him. "Where is the camp?"

Neville looked warily at Draco and Hermione could barely blame him. She had her doubts too.

"We are in Congo, but it’s very dangerous. We knocked down four Death Eaters who roamed the region, and soon they’ll find us. We're leaving today and this was the last attempt to try to find you. "

"What are you waiting for? We need to get out of here," Draco said. Hermione showed the broken credit card and asked the two of them to get closer. Touching the object together she murmured the spell that would take them away.

" _Portus_ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think?
> 
> You can find me at karistiel.tumblr.com as always :]


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'm a lot late to post this chapter but things have been crazy around here recently. I have a few chapters ready to post and I will try to post them along the week if the daily storms stop and leave my already shit internet connection alone.
> 
> Again, thank you for everyone who is reading this!  
> I hope you like this and let me know if there were any mistakes cause I don't have a beta.
> 
> The song for this chapter is Graveyard Whistling by Nothing but Thieves

_'cause if you don't believe_

_it can't hurt you_

_'cause if you don't believe then you know_

_it can never do you harm_

\- Nothing But Thieves

 

There was that sensation of being pulled by the navel into the vacuum and in seconds they stepped on firm ground. Hermione felt the concrete floor beneath her feet and looked around. They were at the entrance to an apartment complex that someday might have been beautiful, but today it was abandoned and pieces of paint on the walls were missing.

"In the garage," Neville said. The three of them walked for a few minutes to the bottom of the large complex toward the garage that did not have many cars. Draco looked around and only saw the abandoned place. He was about to ask if the man was right about it when he touched his arm and led him through an invisible barrier.

In one moment there was nothing and in the other there was everything. It was a chaos of tents and people. They ran from side to side with mountains of things in their hands, others waving their wands and dismounting the camp. In the midst of the cacophony of sounds, Draco could see and hear the way people stopped to hug Hermione and show their happiness for her being alive, for being well. It was so much information for someone who had spent the last few years alone that he wanted to hide and was on high alert all the time. He realized that people had not yet seen him, having eyes only for Hermione's return. He took a few moments to thank for it when finally someone noticed him.

"What's he doing here?" Seamus Finnigan shouted, waving his wand at him. The crowd screamed and tried to hide, thinking it was a threat at the camp, but some, when they realized what was happening, approached, a little fearful.

"He's with me," Hermione murmured directly behind him. For a second she looked tired, but then she put on her mask again.

"Hermione?" Asked Seamus in disbelief, his wand still pointed at the blond. She nodded, stepping discreetly into Draco's field of vision and in front of him. He was getting sick of her doing it. He knew how to defend himself if he had to.

"It's all right, Seamus." She lowered his wand, just as she had done with Neville. "He saved me from Death Eaters." The thin, freckled boy looked at Draco with surprise and mistrust. "We need to talk," she said. Simas looked at Neville, right behind the pair, and the man shook his head cautiously. _Not now_ , he said with his eyes.

"We need to leave this place first," said Seamus, still stunned, his eyes locked on Draco. "Everyone get back to work, we need to get out before nightfall," he said, turning to all the other people standing staring at the scene.

"Daphne's back." He told Neville as the crowd dispersed. "There are no signs of an invasion in Uruguay. If we leave in the next hour we will arrive, in the place marked by her, in the early afternoon. "

"That's good." Neville sighed, accompanying his friend through the camp.

"We promoted her to the main team when you didn't come back," said Seamus to Hermione, explaining.

"She's good," said Hermione, nodding.

"We need to produce the portal keys," said Neville, walking toward one of the tents not yet dismounted and entering with the rest of the group in pursuit.

"Malfoy," came the hoarse, low, startled voice of Daphne as they approached a wooden table in the center.

"Greengrass," Draco replied, shrugging the inquisitive look of the blond woman. Daphne's gaze fell on Hermione and she smiled, but the question was still in her eyes. Hermione shook her head, dismissing the mute question. Daphne nodded, for the moment.

"I'm glad you're back, Hermione, we're not the same without you," said the woman with a sincere smile, shifting her focus from the blond to the still evaluative chestnut.

"Thank you Daphne, I'm glad to be back," Hermione replied. "Tell me everything you know," he said.

"The city is Rivera. And those keys will take us straight there. "She pointed to the objects on the table. "Where I found abandoned school grounds in a rural area almost deserted. It is large enough for all of us and discreet enough to go unnoticed with all our protection spells. It's a completely Muggle neighborhood. "

Years ago, shortly after they had fled the chaos of the Battle of Hogwarts and joined as a group, they had a staff member from the Ministry, Alana Hap, who worked for the Department of Magical Transport. It was from her knowledge that they perfected their escape. She had taught Hermione and Dean all they knew about the building of portal keys, knowledge that the pair would pass on soon after Alana's death, at the hands of the many Death Eaters they met along the way. For her, it was the safest way to travel in large numbers and undetectable. When the first attack on the group came, they were ready. The chestnut thanked every day for having been lucky to find Alana.

"We'll go in groups of five so we don't get too much attention. Each group will follow the next every five minutes. I'll go with the first group to show the place and accommodate us. "Daphne finished.

"We're almost ready," a tired looking young man said from the entrance to the tent.

"Thanks Josh, we'll leave in twenty minutes, let the others know," Neville announced.

"I'm responsible for the portal keys," Hermione stated, and the others nodded. They quickly began to undo the interior of the tent, shortening enough things to fit inside their pockets, and finally the tent itself.

Hermione left, accompanied by Draco, under the suspicious gaze of Seamus and Neville. Daphne came right behind. Now the garage was just a garage full of people. Malfoy looked around and saw what the woman next to him meant when he said that these people were just kids. He could count on the fingers the few who were probably of age. It was not even close enough to defeat the Dark Lord. They were simply a refugee camp.

"Listen everyone. We'll go this time in groups of five people. Daphne will go with the first group and we will send the next ones every five minutes until we have all gone. I want the first ones now, "said Hermione.

At the same moment, some people stepped forward and followed Daphne. The first group disappeared into view. Five minutes later, the second, the third, the fourth and so on until only three groups remained, Neville, Seamus, Hermione and Draco.

"Hermione, I want you to go with this one," Seamus asked, but it seemed more like an order. "You go with the next one, Neville. Malfoy goes with me on the last portkey. "

"Seamus, he'll come with me," Hermione said angrily, and, leaving no room for discussion she took Draco by the arm and went to the nearest group. "Ready?" She asked the five people waiting for them. The five of them nodded and Hermione held out the brass ring in her hand.

" _Portus_ ," she murmured as they all touched the object and within seconds were standing in an abandoned field of some sport. It was day and it was cloudy, the sun hiding behind the clouds. Looking around, Hermione saw the abandoned school just behind her. Without wasting time, they put the others to enter the building. Inside, the walls were peeling and a row of rusty, broken cabinets were lined up along the corridor. There was a lot of dirt and dust everywhere, the lawn of the field expanding into the school and onto the walls, as if they were trying to take back the space of nature that had been stolen from them.

Before she could start looking for the others, Daphne came calling for them.

"This way," Daphne said, gesturing with her hands to follow.

She stepped out into a side hallway that led to an empty classroom full of people starting their tents.

"We will stay here and in the front room, they are the only ones without windows; I also took everything I could to get in the way and took it to the basement with the help of Josh and Kylie, "Daphne said. "The exit is right there and we have the back door as well." she pointed to one side and the opposite. "Right there in the front we have a dressing room that by some divine miracle has running water. Freezing, but there."

Neville, Seamus, and the rest arrived soon after. The next few minutes were spent mounting the main tent and all the others. Tension rose to a good degree when they finally finished and sat down at the wooden table to discuss everything that had happened last week.

Daphne was sitting with Seamus on one side while Neville was on the other side, with Hermione at the end of the table and Draco behind her. With all eyes on him, the blonde wanted to disappear, but remained impassive and endured.

"So, Hermione, are you going to tell us why Draco Malfoy is here?" Asked Seamus furiously. The man had been good at hiding his feelings, like everyone else, but now he made a point of demonstrating them. "Why did you bring a Death Eater to our house?"

Draco snorted angrily and Hermione shot him a sidelong glance that made him quiet again.

"He saved my life," said Hermione. When she found no objection, she continued. "When I came to Darwin I realized that the city had been attacked. When I tried to find a safe place to disappear, two Death Eaters found me. I went down without even realizing what I thought was a stupendous spell. I got up and tried to fight, but they were stronger and two, and the spell had baffled me. Malfoy killed them both before they could kill me. "She said, looking away from the table, I felt him blink briefly as he remembered. "It was at that moment that I felt the worst pain of my life. It felt like my insides were boiling, I felt like I was melting inside ... "

"And you were." 

Draco interrupted, but Hermione ignored him and the blonde stopped.

"Malfoy took me to where he was hiding and gave me the antidote. I spent days without being able to move right by the effect of the spell. Malfoy took care of me as best as he could until we were found and attacked. We managed to escape to a neighboring city by means of apparation but it was by a triz. When I recovered enough, we returned to Mozambique to find you. "Finished her.

"What was this spell?" Neville asked, his eyes wide and frightened.

"Why did you help her?" Seamus asked skeptically. "How did you know what to do?"

Finally Hermione encouraged Draco to answer the questions.

"The spell is called _Interius Ignem_ , created especially by Voldemort," he said. "What it does is slowly melt your organs from the inside, like acid. At first you will not know it hit you until you feel as if everything inside you is boiling. "He told Neville and glanced briefly at Hermione, then turned to Seamus. "I helped because I've been looking for her for months. I deserted shortly after the failure of the Battle of Hogwarts. I've been searching Granger all this time, "he revealed. "I saw this spell being created and tested, studied it, and finally I was able to produce a counter-potion to reverse the effects. It took me 8 months to perfect. "

"Why were you looking for her?" Daphne asked, speaking for the first time since sitting there. She was curious, but still absurdly suspicious.

"Because I have information that can change the whole course of this war and I only know one person who can use it well enough." Draco said and looked at Hermione. Hermione felt the hairs on her arms rise under the intensity of his gaze and the confidence of Draco's words.

"What information is this?" Asked Seamus, still completely suspicious, taking Hermione away from her moment with him.

"Harry Potter is alive. He's a prisoner of Voldemort, "Draco told him cautiously, though at once. It would not do him good to mess around.

Unbelieving sounds were heard by everyone around the table, except Hermione. Even Neville, who had heard this before, had reacted.

"How-how can we trust him?" Neville asked, shaking from head to toe, seeming to finally absorb what those words really meant. He looked now like the scared little boy they met in the first year of Hogwarts.

"Why would I invent something like that, Longbottom?" Draco replied dryly.

"How is this possible?" Daphne asked. The girl was pale and looked more tired than ever. "We all saw him dead that day. How could he have survived? "

"He never died, Greengrass." He confessed. "My mother administered Potion of the Living Dead as Voldemort commanded. Harry Potter has never really been dead. "

A heavy silence fell on the group. Everyone was pale and clearly tired.

"How can we trust you?" Asked Seamus, again, emphasizing his friend's earlier question. Draco huffed.

"Maybe ..." Hermione began thoughtfully. She looked at Draco, her eyes full of doubt and fear. "Did you see him?" she asked.

"Only once," said the blonde. "Some Death Eaters also argued about it over and over, it was almost an absurd rumor. But I saw him. "

"Can I ... see it?" Hermione asked pointedly, though hesitantly. "Can I go into your mind?"

Draco looked at her for long moments and took a deep breath.

"Would that make you trust me?" He asked, looking at Hermione and then at the others. Seamus nodded, just as Daphne did, Neville remained quiet.

"Probably," Hermione replied.

"Okay," Draco said, more to himself than to her. "Whenever you want," he said, sitting down in the chair Hermione had just vacated.

" _Legillimens_ " whispered Hermione, pointing the wand at Draco's head. She barely had time to think anything when she felt herself being immediately thrown out of Draco's mind.

"Sorry, force of habit," Draco murmured, running his hand over his face. He took another deep breath and nodded.

" _Legillimens_ " Hermione murmured a second time. She was not thrown out this time.

Some indistinct images passed through her, but before they could make sense, they were gone. She realized she was not entirely in Draco's mind; where she was was dark and had occasional voices and images passing by, but it was like if something had escaped from somewhere.

"Relax, Draco," Hermione asked in a low tone, approaching the blonde physically. She felt extremely uncomfortable making such personal and intimate contact with him, still more so in front of several curious eyes.

Hermione felt as Draco finally relaxed and his mind opened. The darkness no longer existed, only a myriad of sensations and a perception of emotional warmth. Slowly, images began to form. As in a movie, Draco showed Hermione what she was looking for.

_Draco was anxiously pacing the cold corridors of Voldemort's Fortress. His father was in a meeting with the master and Draco was to join them soon after. For weeks, he had waited for that request, for a reason to be there. He greeted some of the Death Eaters who passed him, and, showing all the confidence that his name offered him, continued with his head held up to the end of the hall. There were two steel doors; one led to the dungeons, another led to the basement. Following what he had heard of the rumors, he pushed the door to the basement. No one came in here except the Lord himself, and this further fueled the rumors. The ladder was pitch black, but Draco descended slowly, trying to feel the stairs with his feet. A long time later he felt the ground and stopped. There were some windows that allowed some light and his eyes quickly adjusted. Still, he could not see much. Taking a daring initiative, he pulled the wand from his pocket and lit it. The dim light partially brightened the room. Draco had smelled the stench as he was coming down, and the moment his eyes fell on the far wall, he understood why. There was a man chained to it. The handcuffs glittered discreetly under the influence of some magic. The man slept on a mattress as dirty and grimy as himself. His hair was long and his skin was so white that even in the dim light of the wand the veins were visible. Draco approached cautiously, but his expensive shoes made noise anyway. The man jumped up and looked at Draco. Huge green eyes, bright and absurdly alive eyes, stared at him, and even without his glasses, Draco would recognize him anywhere._

_"Potter," Draco murmured, his feet pulling him even closer to the man._

_"Malfoy?" Asked the other, his voice raspy and obsolete._

_"It's real," Draco murmured, standing in front of him, stunned, his head spinning in a thousand different directions. "How?"_

_But Draco was interrupted by the crash of footsteps. In seconds, he felt the dark presence of Voldemort behind him._

_"Draco," hissed the dark wizard. "What a misfortune for you to be here."_

Hermione felt as if a large, heavy door closed in on Draco's mind, cutting off the rest of the memory. The chestnut slowly withdrew from Draco's mind. She chased the heat and clarity back into the initial void just before she'd left his mind completely.

The two of them looked at each other and Hermione noticed thick tears running down her cheeks and blurring her vision. She leaned on the table for a moment, losing his composure and forced himself to take a deep breath and swallow everything she was feeling at that moment.

"It's true," Hermione murmured, still with her back to the group of friends that was waiting eagerly. "Harry is ..."

The tent was filled with a heavy silence.

"Why does he want him alive?" Neville asked quietly, his eyes glittering, and he was looking at Hermione's back, looking indecisive. Draco got up and without much thought, unconsciously, moved to block Hermione, almost hiding her from his friends; giving her time to recover from their anxious looks.

"Because he's Voldemort's last horcrux," Draco replied. Behind him, he could hear Hermione move, and out of the corner of his eyes saw her wipe her eyes, determined, turning to the group. "That's why the Dark Lord keeps Potter with him, just as he kept that snake," continued the blonde.

"We need to rescue him," said Hermione, determined, convinced. It was still apparent that what she had seen had affected her more than she had expected. Draco had to admit that it affected even him every time he remembered.

"Not so fast, Granger," Draco interrupted, stopping her thoughts and his own. "We need people," he told them. "We need people who can fight well enough and we need numbers." He put his hands on the table beside Hermione, moving closer to the sitting group. "With each passing day his army increases and ours decreases. We need to be ready to face it or we will all die. "

"And the dead are worthless." Daphne nodded.

"We have not made contact with anyone for more than a year, Malfoy."

"We'll have to change this if we want to turn this game around, Finnigan," Draco snapped. "How, I still don't know." He shrugged.

Hermione looked at the faces of all her friends there and sighed.

"We need to prepare for this, we need to decide what we will do first because there are people out there who needs us." She pointed to the entrance of the tent. "They are not fighters and we can not force them to go with us."

"They need to know that Harry is alive and that there is a chance we'll end it all," Neville argued. "Let them decide for themselves whether they want to come with us or not."

"We'll tell then," said Hermione. "I want them here right after dinner, let everyone know."

The others left to obey, leaving Hermione and Draco alone in the tent.

"How will we do this, Malfoy?" Hermione asked, dejected. Her eyes were still bright red and her lower lip was bruised by the strength she had made to regain her composure.

"I don't know yet, Granger," he murmured, in the same tone, sitting in the chair next to hers. "But we will."

"It's suicide," she whispered, a certain desperation in her voice.

"It's better than what we're living," he whispered back. Hermione nodded and sighed loudly, her heart still beating frantically in her chest. Could they do that? She hoped, with all her strength, that yes, because the image of Harry that way could never be erased from her mind.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> find me at karistiel.tumblr.com :]
> 
> listen to the playlist at open.spotify.com/user/k_aris/playlist/1hhNzV7qTsHIIeGWar9k8W?si=SZboUKIaRA-v5xcdDdnatg


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, new chapter time!!  
> Its mostly a filler but there are still informations that will be important in the future, so keep your eyes peeled :]
> 
> I hope you like it!
> 
> the song for this chapter is Dead in The Water by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

 

 

_I'm waiting for the calm as the storm is getting under my skin_

_I'm trying to fix the hole in my head where the rain gets in_

_(...) trying to get back to the promised land_

_-_ [Noel Gallagher](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9ZrgleyX0g&list=PLKwupk0S9-0dLEaSG1Pm1e24JAy2PGHPZ&index=8&t=0s)

 

"What happened after?" Hermione asked, abruptly changing the subject. Draco frowned, confused. "The memory," she explained, uncertainly. Draco narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. He hated to remember that moment, one of the first to provide many of his scars.

"Nothing good." He murmured, looking away. "Am I allowed to leave the tent?"

"You're not a prisoner here, Malfoy." Hermione emphasized. "But be careful."

"I'm always careful, Granger."

Draco left the tent leaving Hermione behind. He turned aside and started to explore the place they were using as shelter. At the entrance, shortly after the door, there were huge words fading in bold letters. Draco supposed it could be the name of the school or something. The hallway was long and with a few doors; some open, others closed, others hanging from the wall. It was the epitome of abandonment. Large windows could be seen illuminating the corridors in a cold yellow light as reflex of the sun setting outside. The blonde didn't dare approach the windows and decided to go the other way.

There were small windows in the corridor where the rooms they had taken was, but they were so dirty that one could hardly see outside; probably that space had been abandoned long before the rest. He followed the hall and found himself at the doors of a locker room. He entered cautiously and saw some people putting their things together in the bank; the sound of a shower turned on, and there were more people in the stalls. A man was startled to see him come in, but before he could say anything, Draco had left the room. Ahead Draco could see the back door, as dirty as the hallway windows. The walls that once were clear were filthy and grimy. The back door led to a field of some kind of sport - a very large field as long as Draco could see - aged by time and with an ugly and brownish lawn. Beyond the lawn there was the entrance of a forest, full of large trees hardened by the cold.

"What's the deal between schools being on the edge of forests?" Draco murmured, thinking aloud and rolling his eyes.

He went back inside, closing the door behind him.

As he approached the main tent, he faced Daphne.

"Dinner served." The woman announced. "Hermione is looking for you, too."

Draco nodded and followed her into the tent.

"Where were you?" Hermione asked as he approached.

"I thought I was not your prisoner, Granger."

"You're not." Reassured Hermione. "But it would be good to know where you are."

"Just exploring the lot." He confessed quietly.

Any other word was interrupted by some people entering the tent and settling around the table, others serving themselves what Daphne and Kylie had just brought in large cauldrons.

"Stew." Hermione commented as she saw the inquisitive look of the blonde.

"Of what?"

"Of anything we have in stock." She replied with a shrug.

People came and went all the time. The tent was large but not large enough to house everyone around the table. After more than an hour, dozens of people coming and going and two empty cauldrons, dinner came to an end, and in a few minutes the whole camp squeezed in.

Hermione stood up and looked at the faces present.

"We have received vital information today, of sufficient importance to change the whole course of this war we are living. Today we have learned from reliable sources that Harry Potter is alive. "

Within seconds the tent became a chaos of altered voices, cries and celebrations. Neville managed to calm them down.

"He's being held prisoner by Voldemort," she proceeded. "I will rescue him, there is no doubt in that. I won't ask you to embark on this mission with me if you do not want to. "

"We're going with you, Hermione," said Seamus, receiving confirmations from Daphne and Neville. Shortly afterwards, several people raised their hands, volunteering.

"We want to go with you. We're tired of running away," said Julie, one of the camp's resident, also receiving confirmations from the majority.

"We were running away for months and months, running from one side of the world to another, thinking we didn't have a chance, that one day we would all eventually die. But now we have something to believe in," Josh said.

"You can train us even more," said Peter.

"We'll do our best," Joana finished.

Hermione was proud of everyone, knowing that they were willing to fight and thankful that she did not have to go into this fight alone, but she was so tired that she couldn't show the proper enthusiasm. The Invigorating Potion she'd taken earlier was losing its effect and she felt weak. She needed to lie down in the next few minutes or she would faint right there in front of everyone.

"Thank you for that, from the bottom of my heart," she said.

"We'll have time tomorrow to discuss what we'll do from now on. Let's all rest and let this new information settle in our minds. You're dismissed. "

As the crowd began to vacate the tent, Hermione staggered, being quickly supported by Draco.

"You need to rest, Granger," he murmured, placing her seated in the chair he had been in before. "You're not fully recovered, you know that."

"Are you okay, Hermione?" Neville asked, worried.

"Just tired," she murmured. "I'm going to take a shower and go to bed."

"Your tent is ready," said Daphne.

"Thanks."

Malfoy helped her up and Hermione managed to walk without support.

"Malfoy will stay with me until we get something for him." she announced before leaving.

"Hermione..." Seamus began.

"It wasn't a request, Seamus."

"I don't trust him," the man continued.

"I never said I trusted him," she snapped.

Draco looked amused at both of them and a little curious at the scene. Seamus snorted, but nodded and hurried out of the tent. The other two sighed quietly.

"Have a good rest, Hermione," said Daphne, passing her and stopping in front of Draco. "If you do something to her you'll regret you were born one day, Malfoy."

The blonde nodded at the threat, but remained impassive.

"Good rest," said Neville, finally leaving the tent.

Hermione and Draco walked through the midst of people still talking to each other - probably about the good news - to Hermione's tent set up in ther corner of the classroom they were in.

There was nothing but a thin double mattress, a few chairs at a table with some old, worn books.

Hermione took the purse from her body, set it on the table, and sighed. She was too tired for a shower. She felt weak again and leaned against the table.

"For Merlin, Granger," Draco called exasperated. "Go to bed before you fall and hit your head."

"How long will I still feel like this?" She asked, taking off her shoes and going to take the blankets they had brought with them in her backpack. The night had already fallen and the cold with it. The tent was warm, but without much magic, it was a weak spell.

"Tomorrow should be better. It's the best I can offer you." He replied.

Hermione nodded and laid down, closing her eyes and listening to the noises around her getting more and more fuzzy as she fell into unconsciousness.

Draco sat in the chair and watched her. He had found her after so much searching. He hoped she had an army and led an attack on the Dark Lord himself. It seemed like a good idea before, now, seeing her and those people following her, he was not so sure. He'd bet all his cards on her and still wondered if it had been the right thing to do but at that moment it didn't matter anymore. The secret was free and he had given everyone something to live for, to fight.

He got up from the chair and took the backpack from his back. He took out the few remaining bottles of potion and the cauldron. If they were all to go on board, as they had said an hour ago, they would need more potions. Prevention was better than cure.

Draco took a small mirror from his pocket and stared at his face. His face was dirty and his hair was tangled. There was no more blood in his clothes, though he knew the same could not be said of Hermione - sleeping in her dirty clothes. The scars that formed in his arm, going in several directions to his torso didn't let him forget that he had been hit by a _sectumsempra_. He sighed as he pulled the sweater back on and hid another newly acquired scar.

He took a portion of the blankets that Hermione had left at the foot of the mattress, draped them on the floor beside the table, and laid down, throwing another over himself. It couldn't compare to the cold they felt in Australia but it was still cold enough to be uncomfortable.

In minutes, Draco was fast asleep, listening to the camp outside slowing down and finally falling silent. 

*

Hermione woke up in the middle of the night, scared. She looked around in the dark and felt the place where she lay. That was her mattress, so she relaxed. She glanced around again, searching for the reason she'd been woken up abruptly and saw Draco stirring and muttering.

"Don't let him do that," he demanded, his voice strangled. Frightened, Hermione pulled her wand from under the pillow and murmured _"Lumos."_

Draco was asleep, curled up to the neck with the blanket and shaking from head to toe. His eyes were closed, but they were shut tightly and thick tears were streaming down his cheeks. The woman realized he was having a nightmare. It was breaking her heart hear the anguish in his voice.

"Don't let him do that," he repeated. Hermione approached and touched his arm, shaking him lightly.

"Malfoy?" She called. "Wake up. You're having a nightmare. "

He grabbed her hand as she tried to shake him again and squeezed it tightly, still deep into the nightmare.

"Please, don't let him do this with her." He cried.

"Malfoy?" Hermione called again and still had no effect. "Draco?" she yelled, shaking him with force.

Finally he woke up, frightened, squeezing Hermione's hand with even more force making her groan with pain. Tears were still streaming down his face and his eyes were red and vague.

"It was just a nightmare," she whispered, trying to comfort him.

"No," he whispered back, still lost in palpable despair. "It was real."

It was the second time, in days, that Hermione had felt the full impact of Draco Malfoy's vulnerability. He was still shaking, and she wasn't sure whether it was from the cold or from the dream.

"Come here. You'll freeze on this cold floor," she argued, pulling him by the hand and making him hiss as she yanked his newly healed arm. "Sorry." she whispered. Surprisingly he didn't protest further.

They lay side by side, as they had done at her parents' home in Adelaide, and tossed the blankets over their bodies. They fell asleep facing each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can find me at [tumblr](https://karistiel.tumblr.com)
> 
> also, playlist at:  
> [spotify](https://open.spotify.com/user/k_aris/playlist/1hhNzV7qTsHIIeGWar9k8W?si=mZdVIYoKSGO5jcf2_Q3ZTg) and [youtube](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKwupk0S9-0dLEaSG1Pm1e24JAy2PGHPZ)


End file.
